Fifa is run like a 'mafia family' blasts former FA chairman Lord Triesman

Fifa is run like a 'mafia family' blasts former FA chairman Lord Triesman

FOOTBALL’S world governing body Fifa is run like a “mafia family” which would have earned the approval of The Godfather film’s protagonist Don Corleone, the former chairman of the Football Association said today.

Lord Triesman, who was the initial chairman of England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup, has previously claimed four Fifa members sought bribes in return for votes.

In the House of Lords today, the peer also attacked how the FA runs the game in England, criticising the organisation’s “fit and proper persons test” applied to potential owners of football clubs.

His comments come after recent media allegations of corruption in Qatar's successful bid for the 2022 World Cup.

Former FA chairman Lord Triesman [PA]

Systematic corruption underpinned by non-existent investigations where most of the accused are exempt from the investigation make it impossible to proceed

Lord Triesman, former chairman of the Football Association

The 2022 tournament was controversially awarded to the tiny oil-rich state in December 2010, despite temperatures regularly reaching in excess of 40C during June and July, when the World Cup is traditionally held.

Fifa boss Sepp Blatter, who has served as head of the governing body since 1998, recently admitted awarding the World Cup to Qatar was "a mistake".

Lord Triesman said: "Fifa, I'm afraid, behaves like a mafia family. It has a decades-long tradition of bribes, bungs and corruption.

"About half of its executive committee who voted on the last World Cup have had to go.

"Even its past president Joao Havelange has been removed from his honorary life presidency in his nineties.

"Systematic corruption underpinned by non-existent investigations where most of the accused are exempt from the investigation make it impossible to proceed.

Speaking during a debate on the Queen's Speech, Lord Triesman applauded the stand taken by current FA chairman Greg Dyke against the "grotesque" accusations by Mr Blatter, who has suggested British media coverage of allegations over Qatar's bid were 'racist'.

He told peers: "Don Corleone, I believe, would have recognised the tactics and he probably would have admired them."

Lord Triesman also criticised the FA for allowing former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to own Manchester City from 2007 to 2008.

"The fit and proper persons test failed to stop a Thai politician, a former prime minister with a notorious human rights record, from acquiring a major club in this country [Manchester City] or unknown owners controlling other great clubs that are essential to the sporting culture," he said.

Outside the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland [GETTY]

"It is important to our sports culture and it is important to fans."

He added: "Governments should stay out of sport, but they are entitled to designate the lead associations to regulate each sport and to set out the regulatory requirements and standards in the conduct of international sport.

"In the case of the FA, it will be a daunting task to take even the most modest steps, but it is time for the organisation and other sporting organisations to step up to the mark.

"Let's try to eliminate corruption wherever it exists, not least in those things that are so dear to people's hearts."